I picked up a Key Imports “sleeper” (4-4-2) passenger car online last night for a decent price. While it comes painted with added window glazing, it does not have either lighting or interior detailing.
For the interior lighting I would to go with LED strip lighting that uses caps (no batteries, thank you) - e.g. ESU lighting kit. From what I’ve read the brightness can be adjusted with the built-in potentiometer that comes with the lighting strip. I’ll be curious how dim the lighting can be adjusted.
As far as the interior detailing, I’m wondering if scratch-building the interior walls and compartments out of 0.04" styrene is the most straightforward approach with a sleeper. However, I don’t know how feasible it would be to add flooring/compartment walls to the inside of the brass shell.
Has anyone here added interiors to a Key Imports passenger car? Is so, was it difficult? Are there any obstructions (e.g. perpendicular interior bracing) that would make this challenging?
I appreciate any info offered in advance. If this can be accomplished successfully then I will look into obtaining more brass passenger cars to eventually fill out my '40 20th Century Limited consist.
I don’t have any brass passenger cars but the interiors would be made up the same. I use Styrene sheet between .02” to .04” for the walls. I normally go with .01” for the floor so as not to raise it too much, only for keeping the walls in place.
I make up my own ceiling lighting, I found that multiple wide angle 3mm LEDs give much better balanced lighting. I mount them at 1” centers and run them at very low current (under 1ma each) for the most realistic lighting.
Table lamps look pretty nice through the windows.
I mount a 2K pot in the doorway between cars so that it is easy to adjust the lighting level without removing the shell.
I also use micro connectors between the floor or frame and the shell so that I don’t have to mess around tucking wires.
I have added interiors to a caboose, a few passenger coaches and a number of structures. I still like adding structure interiors, but I’m careful about where I invest my time with these now. I still see pretty well, but I’ve come to realize that many windows don’t lend themselves to displaying visible interiors, either figures, walls or flooring.
Most of the time, I put the figures right next to the windows, either in coach seats or at dining tables. The windows in the caboose are so small that the only thing I can see inside is the illumination. My efforts to have a chair, a small desk, wood paneling and a tile floor were totally wasted.
So, think carefully before putting a lot of effort into details you can’t see. Of course, if it does work for you, go for it. I seek out structures with large windows just so I can add details, and I cut open loading dock doors to build a window-box scene inside.
Since it’s a sleeper (vs. a diner or coach), I may be able to get by with just the compartment partitions; primarily something to block the view through to the other side of the car. I would paint the walls to soften the stark white of the styrene and paint or draw thin lines to represent doors to each of the compartments, which I believe were flush with the walls on the 20th Century Limited cars.
I am debating whether to place the strip lighting centered or offset in the roof of the shell. Centered might help facilitate more even lighting throughout the car. Or, I would offset it to illuminate the hallway then run parallel LEDs to illuminate certain compartments; while leaving others unlit or only slightly lit from the residual lighting from the hallway LEDs. I guess I’ll just have to experiment.
I’ll know more once the car arrives next week and I have a chance to remove the shell and see what I’m up against. Should be a fun project.
My first attempt I just lit the rooms and the hall side didn’t look right without lighting. I used the wide angle LEDs for the rooms and regular 3mm LEDs for the hall side.
I had to build the rooms complete with the ceilings to stop the light leakage between rooms and the hall lighting.
I have made some minimal attempts at building interiors for some of my brass passenger cars. Several cars I cheated a little and used the Woodland Scenics tinted acetate material with the intention of returning to add interiors at a later date.
One challenge with the construction of most brass passenger cars is that the side walls usually have a stiffener rib soldered at the floor line. This is also where the floor screws into the body.
In the case of a 4-4-2 you would be able to fabricate the rooms using perhaps .020-030 styrene and only make it as wide as the room itself (7’ 3-1/4"), minus the aisle (2’2-3/4"). This will allow you to fit it inside as a unit and slide it toward the room-side windows.
I would suggest looking into replacing the trucks with Walthers passenger trucks. They offer a GSC Triple-bolster 43-R as these cars were built with.
90% of the stock brass trucks are, IMHO, barely passable for rolling/tracking ability and adapting them for power pickup is yet another challenge. Most have poor rendering of detail and relief on the sideframes.
The Walthers trucks can easily have fine wire attached to the assembly screws and fed through holes through the floor.
All of the aisle-side windows on these cars would have a safety railing about a third up from the bottom. I use .012 or .015 Tichy bronze wire (the heavyweight cars had brass and the lightweights were nickel plated)
You can get away with drawing the shades down in some of the rooms as well, a handy trick to reduce the amount of work involved [Y]
I have used several of the ESU light strips with decoders on some of my coaches but they are not well suited for Pullman “room”
I recently bought another two strings of them and noticed a slight redesign. The “third wire” which seems to be used to segregate two groups of parallel LEDs is now epoxied in with the LED so it is slightly more of a pain to remove it.
Otherwise, these are still a handy way of providing LED lighting. They have a pretty nice incandescent glow to them.
Also, the 4.5 V. wall-wart is good to supply power to Miller Engineering signs [:-^]
If you’re going to add lighting, it’s going to be very clear to viewers that the cars are empty, even with the dividing walls. Several companies make passenger car seats, and adding a simple styrene floor isn’t hard. You don’t have to cram the car full of people, but you’d want to add at least a few to show that the car is ‘in service’.
For the upcoming Christmas holidays I’ll be on “staycation”, so it will be an opportunity to give interior lighting a go for some of my Walthers and Rivarossi passenger cars.
There are others out there, of course. These have gone up (what hasn’t) and as mentioned, the way they are wired there is a third copper conductor twisted along with the string which isn’t needed if you are going to cut them into segments.
It used to be easy to untwist and remove. Recent purchases I’ve made of these lights has the third wire sort of embedded into the epoxy “pill” that contains the SMD LED. Not a big deal and it can be pulled free, carefully.
